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Vehicular Ad-hoc NETworks (VANETs) are an emerging important type of wireless ad-hoc network. Unlike many other types of MANETs, VANET applications such as traffic data dissemination are inherently broadcast oriented and require communication protocols to be anonymous and scalable. Simple broadcast flooding satisfies these requirements, but its performance is highly dependent on network density and may lead to the broadcast storm problem.This work is the first we are aware of to propose stochastic broadcast as a solution for VANET. Stochastic broadcast instructs nodes to rebroadcast messages according to a retransmit probability. Such a scheme is private since node identification is unnecessary, however it has an undesirable dependency on vehicle density in the same manner as simple flooding. To solve this problem, we demonstrate the link between the mathematical science of continuum percolation and stochastic broadcast. Specifically, that the critical percolation threshold in continuum percolation (≈ 4.5 expected neighbors) translates to the wireless broadcast context. Then we show that nodes can tune the performance of the broadcast system to efficient levels by adjusting the retransmit probability so the apparent density of the network approaches the critical threshold.

Broadcast is a critical component in ad-hoc wireless networks. This paper examines the effects that channel unreliability have on the performance of broadcasting protocols. We show that the distance method of statistical broadcast performs poorly under adverse channel conditions. We then describe how to design a version of the distance method that is tolerant of transmission errors by adjusting the statistical variable threshold according to the channel conditions. The resulting protocol is then compared with the Double Covered Broadcast (DCB), a topological protocol designed to handle similar circumstances. The modified distance method protocol is shown to give similar reachability characteristics to DCB while using far less transmissions.

Vehicular networking applications often use multi-hop wireless broadcasting as a primary data dissemination mechanism. Therefore, protocols that efficiently and thoroughly propagate application data while adapting to a wide range of network density, vehicle distribution pattern, channel quality, and other conditions are critical for vehicular communications. Here, we design the Statistical Vehicular Broadcast (SVB) protocol to efficiently distribute data via multi-hop broadcast in vehicular networks.First, we present an automated optimization technique for the design of threshold functions in statistical broadcasting methods. Next, we compare and analyze known statistical techniques, including different fundamental methods, assessment delay algorithms, and failsafe mechanisms. All combinations of these techniques are given threshold functions optimized using the proposed automated procedure then are evaluated in a wide range of simulations. High-level statistical design principles and recommendations are established based on analysis of these results. Finally, we apply those principles to design SVB. It is evaluated in JiST/SWANS and is shown to achieve a high target reachability level while consuming less bandwidth than similar protocols across urban and highway vehicular networking scenarios.

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